Apparently I was in pretty good company when it came to not enjoying an early morning alarm. About ten minutes later, our instructor showed up. He was exactly what I expected. He looked like a military drill sergeant. The way he stood let me know he was former military, or at least had some kind of military training. Today, though, he was wearing civilian workout clothes instead of his more familiar camo. It was impressive to see the amount of respect he commanded with his silent presence.
When he started to speak, the drill sergeant image I had of him was quickly reinforced. “Glad to see you all made it here on time. Normally I get the joy of having at least one person be late so I can make an example out of them. Instead of that, today I’m going to make my example out of the first person who showed up.”
Well, that hadn’t gone as expected. It was the first time being early for anything ever got me in trouble. I hoped whatever he had planned wouldn’t make me look too bad in front of the others.
He looked right at me and seemed to relish the shock on my face. “What is your name, son?”
It still took me a second to register that he was talking to me. Seriously who gets picked on for being early? I took a step forward from the crowd. “Jackson, sir.”
He smiled a little and started to speak again. Well, you couldn’t really call it speaking; it was more of a growl mixed with a yell. “This place never ceases to amaze me. One of you actually knows how to address someone in authority. Now, as much as I enjoy being called sir, we aren’t in the military and you can call me Sarge. Are you ready to get started?”
Almost all of us chorused, “Yes, Sarge.”
He stepped forward, and this time his growl intensified. “It looks like some of you must still be sleeping. When I ask a question, I expect an answer.” He motioned to a few people whom he marked as not saying anything the first time, and motioned for them to step forward. I took no small amount of pleasure in seeing Blondie was one of them.
“Now the fun begins: fifty pushups each. Everyone keep this in mind; for our time together, when you make a mistake, you pay for it in pushups.” He looked around to make sure everyone understood. He counted out the pushups, and after reaching fifty, he continued to speak. “Now that we have that out of the way, let’s head to the gym.” Everyone got ready to follow Sarge. “Let’s go, ladies, time to get the lead out.” He started to jog down one of the paths that wound its way around campus.
The run basically took us in a nice loop around campus. It was the perfect distance to warm up my legs. I was sure that was exactly why Sarge had done it. Our jog ended at a side door of the housing building. We piled inside and started to follow Sarge by running down the stairs. Five flights of stairs later, we emerged into a huge underground room.
The room itself had to be the size of a football field. It was huge and was easily built for hundreds of people to be able to work out at once. The room was divided into four quadrants. The first quarter was filled with your standard cardio equipment. The next one was filled with free weight stations. Moving into the next section revealed different-sized sparring mats, and rings. The final quadrant was filled with weapons and what appeared to be a shooting range.
It was the weapons that really caught my attention. It seemed like every kind of weapon was available to train with, and the last section of that room had been extended in a long narrow path, the walls made out of pure rock. I wondered again what I had gotten myself into, and why someone with magic would actually need a gun. Couldn’t they just incinerate anything that tried to hurt them? I guessed that during my stay here, I was going to find out.
Sarge stepped up in front of the class and addressed us again. “Get used to this room, because it will be your home every morning for the next month. Plan on being here in the gym, from two to four hours a day, every day. That means you should be eating before you come down here. I don’t want anyone passing out on me.”
He looked over the crowd in front of him as if evaluating what he had to work with. “The gym is open twenty-four-seven. I expect to see some of you here more than just during class. When the semester officially starts, our training will move into more specialized aspects, and you will have to find time to do cardio on your own. Until then, plan on me working you into the ground every morning. Anyone have a question?”
I raised my hand. I wasn’t sure I wanted to be singled out, but I wanted to know more about what we were going to be doing. Sarge nodded at me. “Sarge, what is the plan for the next month?”
He smiled, looking like he was going to enjoy breaking every single one of us. “We are going to start with cardio today. Lots and lots of cardio. Each of you will be given a bracelet in a moment. The wristband will track your heart rate and calories burned. It automatically uploads to our servers every night. So if you thought you could escape my notice, you can’t. I can see what each and every one of you is doing and how well you are doing it. If you aren’t meeting the goals I set for you, well, it is going to get interesting real quick. Let’s just say you don’t want any kind of special attention from me. Depending on how well the cardio sessions go, we will be able to add in some weight training and yoga. If everyone gives it their all, you won’t be staring down at the treadmill for four hours a day. Any other questions?”
When no one raised their hands, Sarge started passing out the fitness bracelets. Think of a Fitbit but slightly more advanced. When everyone had one, Sarge pointed to the machines. “Let’s get started. Everyone needs to knock out two hours of cardio. You can run, hop on the elliptical. The only thing you can’t do is stay still. Let’s go!”
After about thirty minutes, I tended to zone out. It was wonderful when you slipped into that zone. The workout always tended to fly by once I hit that stage. When the two-hour session was over, I had never been so happy to step off a machine in my life. I felt good about the fact that I was still standing. My legs wobbled a bit as I started to walk, but I managed not to fall down. Some of the other students had just flopped onto the ground. Sarge called us all over to him. “All right, because everyone killed it today, I’m going to take pity on you and let you go early.”
Some cheering that sounded distinctly more like groans and heavy breathing followed his announcement. “Don’t forget you still have class this afternoon. Get some rest and some food. I’ll see you all tomorrow morning.”
It was like watching slugs move when we made our way to the exit. The worst part about it was we all had at least five flights of stairs to look forward to before we made it to the surface. I told myself that I wasn’t being lazy by taking the elevator up from the lobby to my room. Five flights of stairs had been enough.
Wondering about what the cafeteria had out for lunch, I hopped into the shower. I let the warm water rinse away the stress of what I had just put my body through. When I got out of the shower, the only thing I could think about was lying down. So much for the cafeteria idea. I had the rest of the semester to find out what they served for lunch. Quickly I slung together three peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and poured a glass of juice. I set my alarm for fifteen minutes before class and crawled under a blanket on the futon.
10
Jackson
The blaring beeps from my alarm pulled me out of a deep sleep. God, I really needed to change that tone. Maybe not; it sure got the job done, but it had to be one of the worst sounds in the world. I had just enough time left before class to toss some water in my hair to even it out a bit. After the grueling morning workout, I probably could have slept until tomorrow, but missing the first day of class was not an option. I had a feeling missing classes around here would have more than a bad grade for consequences. All of my muscles had grown stiff from sleeping on the couch after such a long workout.
I grabbed my bag on the way out the door and headed to class. This was going to be interesting: my first taste of what I was going to be doing here. The awkward shuffle I had went away about halfway to the classroom. It gave me a little more confidence knowing that
I would not be walking into class looking like Gollum.
Entering the classroom, I was relieved to see that many of the other students looked as tired as I did. In fact, a few of them had their heads resting on top of their desks, cradled in their arms. Exhaustion still tugged at the end of my senses, but this was my first opportunity to really find out about this new world that I found myself in. I had to take advantage of that. As tired as I was, it was time to man up. The only open seat was in the front of the class, and I was ok with that. I generally found it was harder to fall asleep when you were sitting three feet from the teacher.
The professor walked into the room and, after a quick look at all of our faces, indulged himself with a little chuckle. “Well, from the looks of things, we will not be accomplishing too much today. I see Sarge has started his course off with a bang as usual.”
A little chuckle escaped from a few students around the room. It broke the tension of our first class rather nicely. The pause in action also provided me a moment to size up our new teacher. He was the exact opposite of Sarge in almost every way. Where Sarge had been tense and came off as all hard edges, our new teacher was relaxed and slightly round. He was the kind of person you instantly felt drawn to. Something in his demeanor cried out you can trust me.
After taking stock of all the students in the room, he started to speak. “The good news is, for most of you this will just be a review. I still expect you to stay awake and contribute when called on. For those of you who are new to our facilities, there is a chance you could find this review enlightening. During the next month we will be discussing some of the basic principles of your gift. I also hope to shed some light on what the Ascendancy does out in the world.”
I already found myself totally fascinated with what we were going to be learning. A quick glance around the room told me that I might be the only one. For almost everyone else here, this was just a review of information they already knew. For me, this was the start of my training, and I had to take it seriously.
The teacher turned toward the blackboard behind him and wrote his name on the board. Professor Howard Small. Kind of ironic if you thought about it too hard, like calling the biggest person you knew tiny.
Professor Small continued to write on the blackboard while he was speaking. “There are four basic principles of magic. Each principle has a distinct use that can be applied to change the world around us. Some of you will find that spells from one of the four basic principles are easier for you to cast. When this is the case, we call it an affinity. Can anyone tell me what the four basic principles are?”
Only one hand was in the air: the boy I had seen last night with the dreadlocks. The professor pointed at him. “And your name is?”
He looked at the professor for a second before answering. “Marcus.”
“Ok, Marcus, tell us the four basic principles.”
“The principles are not to be confused with the elements such as earth, air, water, and fire. The principles refer to the way someone harnesses their gift and what the outcome is directly. So while using the elements in magic is a principle, the element itself is not.”
The professor made a motion for Marcus to continue.
“So the four basic principles are summoning, enchanting, conjuring, and elemental.”
The professor smiled at the class. “Bravo, my boy, two points to Marcus for being spot on.”
Someone I couldn’t see spoke out. “Two points, sir?”
The professor looked back at the class. “Sorry, just a reference toward a show I was watching last night. Don’t worry, the points don’t matter.”
Professor Small surveyed the room. I got the impression that he was looking for people who were not even trying to pay attention. Luck was on my side; since I had never heard any of this before, you couldn’t tear me away. I wondered just how they had known I was one of the Gifted, anyway. Stillman had referenced my burst of energy in the desert, but how would I know if I could really cast spells?
The professor finished his mental checklist and started to speak again. “I like to use the elemental principle of magic for my example. The ability to control the four elements and make them do what you want will be one of your first lessons. So while fire can be cast at someone or something to burn it, it can also be used to protect something.”
The professor took a piece of paper off his desk. In a blink, the paper was covered in bright blue flames. The paper stayed standing upright in the professor’s hand, and the fire that burned so brightly did not seem to be touching his hand. “Let’s see, someone in the front there. What is your name?”
“Jackson, sir.”
“Ok, Jackson, rip a page out of your binder and crumple it into a ball for me. Once you have it ready, toss it so it hits the paper in my hand.”
When I threw the ball of paper as instructed, it completely disintegrated into ash. It amazed me how fast it had happened, not even a second after it came into contact with the professor’s spell. All that was left of it was grey ash floating gently toward the floor.
“All right, anyone else in the front mind losing a pen?”
The boy next to me gently lobbed his pen toward the professor’s paper. When it hit the burning paper, again it completely disappeared in a brief flare. All of the ink and the entire pen were gone almost on contact; the slight smell of burning plastic was all that remained. The professor made a show of tossing his sheet up into the air. He must have reversed the spell, because the paper burned almost instantly.
“As you can see, your gift can shape the spells that you cast. You are only limited by your creativity and execution of the magic. Practice does tend to make perfect in the magical world. So can anyone tell me what the rest of the basic principles of magic are used for?”
Marcus raised his hand again, and since there weren’t any other takers, the teacher nodded for him to continue. “Summoning is the ability to call something to you. The object, person, animal, or creature you summon must be real and something you have interacted with before. Conjuring is almost the polar opposite of summoning. Conjuring is creating something from nothing, or the ability to slightly change an item’s purpose. Finally, enchanting is the ability to place magic into an inanimate object. The best enchanters can make these enhancements permanent.”
“Again, spot on, Marcus. I see that you have spent some time reading about the gift and not just using it. Moving right along in our lesson, let’s talk about mana. Our ability to use the gift comes from everything around us. Mana is the life blood of the Gifted. Our ability to harness it and shape it is what we call the gift. Some of the most talented Gifted can actually harness mana from the world around us. Unfortunately most of us have to be content with our power well.”
The professor let his eyes roam over the class again. I got the feeling he was double-checking that mental list he had previously made. “Your power well is the amount of mana you can store safely inside of yourself. The amount you can hold and control will grow with time and the use of your gift. When your well is extinguished, your ability to shape mana will be lost. That is why we also focus on physical training. In a long drawn-out battle, you could find yourself in the position of being unable to call on your gift and needing to fight a different way. As you continue with different classes here at the academy, you will learn just how far you can push yourself. Staying alive oftentimes means being the last one able to cast a spell.”
I coughed a little bit. Had the professor just said staying alive? I knew they’d mentioned dying at the orientation, but what was this place, some kind of death camp? I wasn’t sure just how I felt about having to fight with the possibility of death. This magic thing had better get real good, real fast, or I was out of here.
I looked up at the professor. “Sir, did you just say ‘staying alive’?”
I caught a few snickers from around me, and one person mumbled something under their breath about my lady parts.
The professor gave the room a quick glare, the f
irst thing he had done since I met him that showed that he could get angry. “Becoming a member of the Ascendancy is a dangerous profession. You will be asked to consistently place yourself in harm’s way, to place the success of your mission above your own life. We protect humanity from a threat they cannot see and we do not want them to discover. That is the reason your training here is so important. It could literally mean the difference between life and death.”
The professor walked toward me and gave me a simple pat on the shoulder. “We all die, Jackson. It is what we do while we are alive that matters.” He stepped back from my desk and addressed the class. “I think we have had enough for today. I’m going to let all of you go early. Do not, I repeat, do not be late for Sarge’s class in the morning. He hates that!”
Some audible groans escaped while people thought about next morning’s workout. If working out would keep me alive, then I was going to work out harder than I ever had before. I still wasn’t sure about this whole thing, but I hoped being here was the right decision. My dad and mom had both made it into the Ascendancy, but both of them were dead now. What would they have wanted for me?
11
Jackson
I headed back to my dorm room in a semi stunned kind of silence. I was going to have to sit down and think real hard about what I wanted from this place and if it was worth it. Stillman conveniently left out that there would be a risk of dying in the future. Not to mention having to fight for a living, and against what? Pretenders, what did that even mean? I wasn’t sure that was the kind of life I wanted. On the other hand, it was what my parents had done. That seemed not to have worked out so well for them, but just how many people had they saved before their lives were cut short? I found it harder and harder to be mad at them, knowing they’d put their lives on the line to save people they didn’t even know.
The Arena Page 10